In typical hyper-partisan fashion, the House this week rejected a budget plan by the minority Democrats, adopted a proposal by the majority Republicans, and both sides virtually ignored the only bipartisan, centrist budget that makes any sense.
Rep. Jim Cooper, a moderate Democrat from Tennessee, teamed up with Steven LaTourette, an Ohio Republican, in an attempt to revive what’s left of the bipartisan budget created by the Simpson-Bowles panel in 2009.
The Cooper-LaTourette plan would reduce federal deficits over 10 years by more than $4 trillion, with two-thirds of the deficit savings coming from spending cuts and entitlement reforms, and one-third from tax reform.
Serious analysts from nonpartisan groups who have pushed for a more balanced approach – a mix of taxes and cuts – for many years were excited by this new budget proposal.
“This budget amendment is a major breakthrough,” said Robert Bixby, executive director of the well-respected Concord Coalition. “It gives House members a chance to consider a bipartisan deficit-reduction plan that achieves significant savings from all parts of the budget. More than any other plan under consideration, it puts results ahead of ideological purity.”
And several hours later, the plan was dead. It received a humiliating 38 votes on the House floor as the liberals and conservatives both abandoned it.
Politico’s David Rogers wrote a piece attempting to explain the Capitol Hill politics behind fiscal policy, and he nailed it:
“… As the debt problem has grown, the tone of the annual budget debate seems to have changed. Factions in both parties appear more likely to stake out extreme positions that have little bearing on political reality.
For example, 136 Republicans Thursday backed a conservative alternative that promised to bring the budget into balance in just five years but also demanded a 25 percent cut in nondefense appropriations in 2013 alone. Wednesday night, 107 Democrats backed a liberal Congressional Black Caucus alternative that called for nearly $4 trillion in additional tax revenue — beyond what Obama has proposed.”
As expected, the House Republicans approved the 2012 (FY 2013) version of the Paul Ryan budget.
In the process, they decided to renege on the $500 billion in Pentagon cuts that were embedded in the deficit-ceiling deal reached last August.
Facing pressures from the tea party types and defense hawks, the GOP leadership embraced a budget that could spell major problems at the ballot box in November.
Many of the Democrats bowing to the wishes of the Black Caucus, which came up with a budget full of tax hikes, may have also set themselves up for a tough re-election race in the fall.
Rogers calls the GOP move a “devil’s bargain” because it walks away from last year’s budget deal an invites another October government shutdown fight with Senate Democrats unless the House alters course.
What happens next in the House, well, we won’t know for a while. In typical congressional fashion, after they wrapped up their budget votes — though not all of the actual cuts — the representatives took an 18-day recess.
